Sustainability at the United Nations: a rookie's perspective.

As a recent university graduate with an interest in international development and other cultures, I had after hoped to one day work at the United Nations. But returning this week from New York, where I was a youth representative for the Canadian delegation to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), I realized that the UN isn't exactly what I had imagined.

My name is Shalene Jobin and I am a 24-year-old urban Aboriginal woman in Canada. My father is Metis and my mother is Cree from Red Pheasant First Nation. I was born in Calgary, Alberta and have lived in Alberta all of my life. For the last year I have been one of twenty Canadian Youth Summit Team members whose mandates to get Canadian youth involved and empowered in sustainable development issues leading up to the WSSD gathering August 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Youth Summit Team, sponsored by the United Nations Association of Canada, grew out of the recognition that youth perspectives on the future of our communities and our environment need to be heard more clearly at international forums. Coming ten years after the first world summit in Rio de Janeiro, the upcoming WSSD is an excellent opportunity for youth voices to be heard. For the past year, young people from across the country have been meeting to voice their concerns, speak about their activism, critique current processes, and put forward alternatives.

As a Youth Summit Team member, I had the amazing opportunity to be the Canadian youth representative at Preparatory Committee Ill, the third of four UN meetings attended by delegates from around the world to create and debate the proposed action plan being brought forward to the WSSD. I wanted to present a youthful indigenous perspective to the process and to share what I'd been hearing over the past year. Prior to attending I was quite intimidated by the UN and doubted that I possessed the knowledge required to be effective, but there were only three other indigenous youth present. There are so many decisions being made that affect our people that I felt our perspectives needed to be voiced.

My first impressions of life in the international territory of the United Nations have been both positive and negative. To be honest the main thought I had before and during the conference was how ironic the process is. I felt like a hypocrite preparing for a conference about sustaining the earth while printing all the material I needed to read and use... all those poor trees! And when I got there, YIKES, so much paper was used and wasted! One room I walked into actually had paper piled five feet high, and because of the repetitive nature of the discussions, the piles of paper were useful one day and garbage the next. To be fair, I learned that the UN has a paper-recycling program, but there definitely weren't a lot of recycling bins around!

One of the big ironies is how unsustainable the WSSD process is. Lock hundreds of bureaucrats in smoke-filled rooms for two weeks with probably less than 4 hours of sleep a night, sometimes working 20 hours+ a day. I don't know about you but I think it's probably not the best environment for forging recommendations to guide future global actions by governments around the world. You're there to create a healthier planet but you don't even see the light of day... it's easy to lose perspective!

Youth possess the energy and creativity that is sometimes missing in the UN process, lost amid the paper piles and 'wordsmithing.' One of the things the youth lobbied on was "Self-Sustainbaility in the UN Process." This campaign was my favourite of the two weeks. We handed out hundreds of coupons to delagaes, entitling the bearer to take a 15-minute walk OUTSIDE, 15 minutes to hear the birds chirp, 15 minutes to enjoy the sun, or, my favourite, a 1 5-minute break to remind yourself of all the positive reasons why you are herer. It was surprising how many people just didn't get it!

Throughout the process, I worked with other young people to influence the drafting of the Chair's paper which would be used to create the document going forward to the summit. More than 30 youth participated in the youth caucus at the preparatory meeting, and many more participate through an email list-serve. Our caucus has been focussing on a range of topics from education to consumption, and from conflict to water and resource management.

For my part, I have tried hard over the past year to bring an indigenous perspective to these efforts. As I write this article, I am on the road with a group of young people from across Canada and the South Pacific. We are travelling to First Nations communities in Canada to talk to youth about what they think is happening to their land, resources and communities, and to help inspire common action. As Indigenous youth it is crucial that our voice is heard. Unfortunately the consultation process that is currently used by many governments does not support this. I will take what I hear to the summit in Johannesburg.

So, all in all, my first UN experience was not what I expected. I laughed, I cried, I was EXTREMELY frustrated at times but left with a feeling of empowerment. As youth, we CAN and MUST make a difference in this world that we are inheriting.

Shalene Jobin has Cree and Metis roots and is a member of Red Pheasant First Nation in Saskatchewan. Shalene has had a very diverse career; from working as a Computer Programmer to being a researcher and consultant on Social Services provided to Aboriginal youth. She has studied in Lund, Sweden and has recently returned from travelling across Canada with the Indigenous Youth to Youth project.